Category: News

The following are excerpts from a Straits Times analysis of the 954-page Cross-Island Line assessment report by Senior Transport Correspondent Christopher Tan. In it, he mooted the possibility of a third alignment further south, which would serve the future Bukit Brown estate.

Tan wrote: “Having one more line serving an area as sizeable as Bukit Brown is well within reason. Many areas in Singapore are served by two or more lines. For instance, Marina Bay has four lines and about half a dozen stations.”

In transport, efficiency here means more than having the shortest possible route between two points. It also means making a transport system accessible to as many people as possible so that its long-term benefits will outweigh its initial cost.

Going to the extreme to achieve either objective would not be viable. You end up with either a straight line, which invariably misses crucial passenger catchments, or a squiggle of a line which makes construction unwieldy and journeys inordinately long.

“We are totally not for the Cross Island Line to go through the Central Catchment Nature Reserve… It is a remnant fragment of an ancient rainforest with its incredible biodiversity. That’s something so priceless and invaluable that you can’t put a price on.”

Translation – “Environmental education NGO, Cicada Tree Eco-Place’s president and co-founder, Zhao Qin Yin (Teresa Teo Guttensohn) opined that the sky park would encourage more members of the public to interact with nature and raise their awareness of conservation.

She said: “The sky park is adjacent to the Rail Corridor, which is an important long term habitat for our endangered wildlife. The elevated linear park will also bring greater convenience to visitors and attract them to explore the surrounding nature trails.”

Nature Society president says planned elevated linear park could rival New York’s High Line

Tiffany Fumiko Tay

The idea for the Bukit Timah Canal to serve as a green corridor has been around for some years, and work to spruce up the adjacent Rail Corridor may finally turn it into reality, said Dr Shawn Lum, president of the Nature Society (Singapore), yesterday.

Dr Lum, who backed the idea in a 2016 interview with The Straits Times, noted that the canal intersects with a number of large green patches, “so linking them up and adding appropriate landscaping would be really interesting”.

Cicada Tree Eco-Place celebrated our nation’s 54th National Day by going outdoors with fellow Singaporeans and visitors to enjoy Singapore’s amazing nature along the Rail Corridor.

Kids enjoying the outdoors and nature

This follows in our tradition of appreciating our natural heritage on National Day! On 9 August last year, we took a walk at MacRitchie Rainforest to search for the native durian tree named after Singapore.

The free public guided nature walk started with a fun “leaf-yoga” warm-up session at Fuyong Park led by volunteer Bala and a welcome message on eco-living by volunteer Teresa.

Led by volunteer guides Andrew and Li Fang, participants and their families enjoyed a slow discovery walk along the forest’s edge at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, and encountered some of the interesting wildlife living in the area.